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Mexican journalist calls Colombia's peace process an example for the world

Mexican journalist calls Colombia's peace process an example for the world

Jorge Ramos, who this year won the Gabo Excellence Award, recalled that all his Colombian friends "never spent a single day of their lives in peace."

Mexican journalist calls Colombia's peace...

By EFE

October 02, 2017

Mexican journalist Jorge Ramos said Friday in Medellin that Colombia's peace process is an example for the world, an example that many countries should follow to put aside violence.

"Perhaps you don't realize or don't have any idea how much we in other countries admire you," Ramos said during the discussion "Disobey, Always Disobey" held at the Gabriel Garcia Marquez Festival and Journalism Awards.

Ramos, who this year won the Gabo Excellence Award, recalled that all his Colombian friends "never spent a single day of their lives in peace."

Despite acknowledging that there are "many debates and many dilemmas" involved in the reconciliation process, he said he prefers "to see them fighting almost to the death on TV rather than fighting with guns in the jungle."

"It is admirable that you have dared, have had the strength, the courage...after 53 years to say "it's over, that's it, we're tired of war," he said during a discussion with Colombian Maria Elvira Arango and Brazil's Rosental Alves, and which was attended by students, reporters and participants in the festival.

"I personally admire all that you have achieved, because you're an example for the world...around the world you are an example of what countries ought to do to put behind them all enmity and violence," said Ramos, one of the special guests of the day, during which the finest Ibero-American works in the categories of texts, images, innovation and coverage were also honored.

The Colombian government signed last November a peace accord with the FARC (now a political party), which put an end to five decades of armed conflict, the longest on the continent, and is currently holding talks in Ecuador with the ELN guerrilla group.